token
nounEtymology
From Middle English token, taken, from Old English tācn (“sign, symbol”), from Proto-West Germanic *taikn, from Proto-Germanic *taikną (“indicator, symbol, sign”), from Proto-Indo-European *deyḱ- (“to show, instruct, teach”) with Germanic *k rather than *h by Kluge's law. Cognate with Scots takin, taiken (“token, sign”), Saterland Frisian Teken (“sign, symbol”), West Frisian teken (“sign, mark, symbol”), Dutch teken (“sign, indication, symbol”), German Low German Teken (“sign, symbol”), German Zeichen (“sign, token”), Danish tegn (“sign, token, character”), Swedish tecken (“sign, indication”), Faroese tekn, tekin (“mark, sign, signal”), Icelandic teikn (“sign, omen”), Icelandic tákn (“symbol”). The verb is from Middle English toknen, from Old English tācnian.
Definitions
Something serving as an expression of something else.
- According to the Bible, the rainbow is a token of God's covenant with Noah.
A keepsake.
- Please accept this bustier as a token of our time together.
A piece of stamped metal or plastic, etc., used as a form of currency
A piece of stamped metal or plastic, etc., used as a form of currency; a voucher that can be exchanged for goods or services.
- Subway tokens are being replaced by magnetic cards.
- A book token is the easiest option for a Christmas gift.
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A small physical object, often designed to give the appearance of a common thing, used to…
A small physical object, often designed to give the appearance of a common thing, used to represent a person or character in a board game or other situation.
- Everyone pick a token (hat, wheelbarrow, thimble, etc.) and place it on the Start square.
A minor attempt for appearance's sake, or to minimally comply with a requirement
A minor attempt for appearance's sake, or to minimally comply with a requirement; a formality.
- His apology was no more than a token.
Evidence, proof
Evidence, proof; a confirming detail; physical trace, mark, footprint.
Support for a belief
Support for a belief; grounds for an opinion.
An extraordinary event serving as evidence of supernatural power.
An object or disclosure to attest or authenticate the bearer or an instruction.
A seal guaranteeing the quality of an item.
Something given or shown as a symbol or guarantee of authority or right
Something given or shown as a symbol or guarantee of authority or right; a sign of authenticity, of power, good faith.
- Say, by this token, I desire his company.
- And he said, Certainly I will be with thee; and this shall be a token unto thee, that I have sent thee: When thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt, ye shall serve God upon this mountain.
A tally.
A particular thing to which a concept applies.
An atomic piece of data, such as a word, for which a meaning may be inferred during…
An atomic piece of data, such as a word, for which a meaning may be inferred during parsing.
- For each lexeme, the scanner creates a small data package known as a token and passes this data package on to the parser.
A conceptual object that can be possessed by a computer, process, etc. in order to…
A conceptual object that can be possessed by a computer, process, etc. in order to regulate a turn-taking system such as a token ring network.
A meaningless placeholder used as a substitute for sensitive data.
A digital asset that is created and managed on an existing blockchain using a smart…
A digital asset that is created and managed on an existing blockchain using a smart contract.
- non-fungible token
- In May 2025, the president hosted the 220 largest buyers of $Trump and held a private “reception” for the largest 25 buyers, who spent around $148m on $Trump tokens.
A lexeme
A lexeme; a basic, grammatically indivisible unit of a language such as a keyword, operator or identifier.
A single example of a certain word in a text or corpus.
- However, note the token ontology, ranked the 15ᵗʰ most frequent token in our ontology corpus, occurs 1940 times out of 336,311 tokens, but ontology only occurs 52 times in the BNC – the ratio of two relative frequencies is 10895.
A characteristic sign of a disease or of a bodily disorder, a symptom
A characteristic sign of a disease or of a bodily disorder, a symptom; a sign of a bodily condition, recovery, or health.
A livid spot upon the body, indicating, or supposed to indicate, the approach of death.
- Like the fearful tokens of the plague, Are mere fore-runners of their ends.
Ten and a half quires, or, commonly, 250 sheets, of paper printed on both sides
Ten and a half quires, or, commonly, 250 sheets, of paper printed on both sides; also, in some cases, the same number of sheets printed on one side, or half the number printed on both sides.
A bit of leather having a peculiar mark designating a particular miner. Each hewer sent…
A bit of leather having a peculiar mark designating a particular miner. Each hewer sent one of these with each corf or tub he had hewn.
A thin bed of coal indicating the existence of a thicker seam at no great distance.
A physical object used for exchange between drivers and signalmen on single track lines.
In a loom, a colored signal to show the weaver which shuttle to use.
A piece of metal given beforehand to each person in the congregation who is permitted to…
A piece of metal given beforehand to each person in the congregation who is permitted to partake of the Lord's Supper.
Done as an indication or a pledge.
Perfunctory or merely symbolic
Perfunctory or merely symbolic; done or existing for appearance's sake, or to minimally comply with a requirement.
- a token gesture
- He made a token tap on the brake pedal at the stop sign.
- If the as had been reduced to a token in 240 BC, it was now a little more token than before.
Included in minimal numbers in order to create an impression or illusion of diversity,…
Included in minimal numbers in order to create an impression or illusion of diversity, especially ethnic or gender diversity.
- He was hired as the company's token black person.
- The television show was primarily directed toward a black audience, but it did have a few token white people as performers.
- However, it should be noted that wherever ministers are opposed to mixed churches, the racial admixture is token.
To betoken, indicate, portend, designate, denote
- dorrẹ̅, dōrī adj. & n. […] Golden or reddish-yellow […] (a. 1398) *Trev. Barth. 59b/a: ʒelouʒ colour [of urine] […] tokeneþ febleness of hete […] dorrey & citrine & liʒt red tokeneþ mene.
- The instinct revolted against the inevitable punishment to come, already tokened by those big holes now met in walls and crossings.
To betroth
To symbolize, instantiate
- In which sense does ‘∀p ~(p & ~p)’ cause the tokening of the belief in the subject?
The neighborhood
- neighborparticular
- neighboruniversal
- neighbortype
Derived
abbey token, access token, book token, bride token, by that token, by the same token, Conder token, CSRF token, fungible token, gift token, God's token, hard-times token, honeytoken, in token of, love token, milk token, more betoken, more by token, non-fungible token, non-tangible token, nontoken, subtoken, super-token, that and a token will get you on the subway, token bucket, token economy, token grabbing, tokenisation, tokenish, tokenism, tokenist, tokenistic, tokenization, tokenize, tokenless, tokenlike, token money, tokenomics, token-pasting operator, token ring · +8 more
Vish — recursive loop
A definitional loop anchored at token. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.
A definitional loop anchored at token. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.
9 hops · closes at token
curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.
sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA